When the lectures have come to an end

It is exams time. The most stressful time for both exchange and regular students. Everyone is studying hard and there is a good reason for this.

I have already tackled three out of four exams. I can say that it was an interesting and a bit new experience. There is a difference between ITMO and TU Darmstadt: in TU Darmstadt, you have to take an exam on every subject. There is no such a possibility to sail through without taking the exam. That means you have to prepare a lot, even if the subjects are not really important to you.

Furthermore, the exams have a bigger meaning in Germany. In ITMO you can score up to 80 percent of points just by attendance and accomplish some exercises during the semester. The remaining 20 percent of the points are left to the exams. Therefore, the role of the exam is not so much important. Also, you experience less stress, knowing, that what you have achieved, works for you. In Germany, exams decide everything. You may acquire some bonus points by successfully accomplishing some studying objectives during the semester. However, it would be only about 10 percent of the points in the best case. This means that exam is the only battle you have. Such a situation clearly raises the amount of stress that students experience.

Normally the exam consists only of a written part, which is a truly big exercise assembly. There are exercises to each topic, which was studied during the course. The whole exam paper is rather big. You are always given 90 minutes. This means that you have to think really fast and that you have no time to lose.

The time span of the exams is rather broad. Exams are held since the middle of April until the end of September. However, it does not matter that there will be big gaps between the exams. I have passed two of them in June and one in the end of August, the remaining one will take place and in September.

It takes a long time to have the exams checked. Even though it has been more than a month since I wrote the first exam, I still do not know its results. In my view, it is genuinely stressful for a student, to know nothing about own results for such a long time. All I can do is keep guessing and hope for the best. I assume that this might be connected to an enormous amount of students, taking part in the exam simultaneously.

All in all, you have to study a lot, if you want to pass an exam. There might be the point about mentality differences, meaning that German students can organize themselves much better than Russian ones. I wasn’t easy for me to get through all these complications, but it definitely was a great challenge for me.

All thing considered, I can say, that I like exam system at ITMO way better than the one in Germany. It is less stressful and more convenient for me. However, the German exam system also has its positive sides. For instance, it seems to me to be a little more challenging, which may lead to achieving higher results. German education in the branch of engineering is considered to be one of the best in the world and there must be a good reason for this. However, I will feel a great relief as soon as I pass all the German exams.